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tv   The Situation Room  CNN  November 13, 2012 4:00pm-7:00pm EST

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he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. a clinic spokesperson says he is no longer being treated there. he is at the center of a federal investigation of misuse of campaign funds and won re-election in his district last week. he is out of the mayo clinic. it is time for "the situation room" and wolf blitzer. wolf? >> ted, thanks very much. happening now. another top commander in a widening scandal swirling around general david petraeus. john allen is now the subject of a pentagon investigation. it centers around hundreds, possibly thousands of e-mails sent to this woman. details of where she fits into an increasingly tangled web of relationships. i'll talk about all of this with the chair of the senate intelligence committee. dianne feinstein says it is like something off the front page of a tab roid mloid magazine and s
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demanding answers. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." we begin with stunning twists in the scandal that brought down the head of the cia, general david petraeus. another u.s. general is caught in the same tangled web. john allen, top commander in afghanistan, is being investigated by the pentagon for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to a married woman, the same woman whose complaint of threatening e-mails from general petraeus' lover cracked the scandal wide open. barbara starr is trying to sort this out for us. it is rather complicated, what's the latest you're getting? >> it is still the same fundamental question for the last 24 hours, wolf. why is john allen being
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investigated and how on earth did he get caught up in this? marine corps general john allen denies an extramarital affair with jill kelly, the florida socialite whose concern over threatening e-mails led to an investigation that revealed an affair between cia director david petraeus and his biographer, paula broadwell. a pentagon official told reporters allen who commands the war in afghanistan is adamant he did nothing wrong. a senior official close to allen tells cnn of kelly there is no affair, she's a bored socialite. a u.s. official says there appears to be nothing criminal involved. but allen is now under investigation for what is called inappropriately flirtatious e-mails to kelly. >> secretary directed it be referred to inspector general of department of defense. >> the fbi found up to 35,000
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pages of documents, some dating back two years during the investigation. according to a senior official close to allen, one message the afghan commander sent warned kelly she had been threatened. the official says allen had received an anonymous message, now believed to be from broadwell. the pentagon was called in because allen is subject to military law. but why did this only come out now in public view? >> we have a large amount of alleged material that went between these individuals, as much as 30,000 pages. it's not clear whether this was viewed as a relatively minor question or whether it was not apparent until the very end that the general was involved. >> allen was to appear thursday for senate hearing to become the military head of nato. now that is on hold. >> we need to be careful not to have this cloud of scandal start to color the image of general
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allen because the minute that happens, it may be almost too late to sustain his leadership. >> wolf, so everybody is talking about 30,000 pages of documents and e-mails. it sounds like an extraordinary number. but behind the scenes, officials are telling us be cautious. some of this may be copies, it may be blast e-mails to one of general allen's e-mail lists, some may be on his business computer, military computer, some may be on his private computer. we just don't know yet the full scope of all of this. so far, the white house is still expressing confidence in him as commander of the war in afghanistan, wolf. >> the war in afghanistan, but they put on hold at least for now his confirmation hearings to be the chief -- the head of nato if you will, supreme allied commander for europe. those confirmation hearings at least for now on hold and they're trying to accelerate the confirmation hearings of the general slated to take over for
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him in afghanistan. >> that's exactly right. allen was 48 hours away from thursday a hill hearing to become the new military chief of nato. the hearing for his successor to command the war in afghanistan will go on. now the question really is this. will general allen either have a problem here with further investigation, will he get cleared of this in time to perhaps still be able to effectively take over at nato. we don't know the answer yet. >> barbara starr, thank you. another development, an fbi search at the woman at the center of the affair, paula broadwell. suzanne, you learned new details about the search. what have agents found? >> that's right, wolf. we know that fbi agents were at broadwell's home in charlotte, north carolina last night. agents spent about five hours conducting a search, took documents and computers from her house. we're told by a u.s. official that agents are looking further into what classified material
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she has. the official described this as much as sort of tying up loose ends really. an earlier search of broadwell's computer turned up classified material and according to the same official, broadwell and petraeus told investigators the material didn't come from him. you can bet those agents are trying to track down the source of that classified information, wolf. there's still no word whether there could be charges brought against her, but we're told she hired an attorney in washington, and i reached out several times to him today. haven't heard back yet. >> what do we know about the fbi agent that sent kelly shirtless pictures of himself? >> a u.s. official confirms the agent in question did send shirtless photos of himself to kelly, which opens up a host of questions. they also said that happened before this case ever began. we already know this was the agent kelly took her original concerns to when she received the e-mails she felt were threatening. an official we spoke with said
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this agent never worked the case, but passed on the information to special agents in another department, the cyber unit. it was that department that took up the investigation that eventually led to the affair between broadwell and general petraeus. >> this agent also who has not been identified, suzanne, who allegedly went to this republican member of congress from washington state, dave reichert, he then went to house minority leader, majority leader eric cantor who went to justice department and fbi and as a result, all of this exploded. by releasing sensitive information to this member of congress, did he break the law? is he under investigation now for potentially criminal activity, this fbi agent? >> i am sure now wolf they'll be looking at whistleblower laws to see if he was or not. once again, he wasn't actually in the chain f command, it wasn't one of the special agents investigating the case, but he
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did have details because of his relationship with jill kelly. that's where the scrutiny is to determine whether or not any laws were broken. >> we'll soon find out. suzanne, chief political analyst, gloria borger has been digging into this. doing some reporting on the e-mails. what are you finding out? >> what i'm learning, wolf, is these e-mails to jill kelly from paula broadwell were accusatory in nature, saying jill kelly had effectively behaved inappropriately with some generals at macdill air force base where she worked or helped, and according to one source who is familiar with the e-mails, they detailed what this source calls, i want to read this to you, the comings and going of the generals and miss kelly. now, generals is a plural there. maybe, wolf, it was a bunch of social events. what raised eyebrows for investigators was that paula broadwell whom they later
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discovered was sending these e-mails actually seemed to know the details of the general's schedule, including general petraeus's schedule, and much of that is not open to the public. that's when they started thinking if the sender of this e-mail has access to his private schedule, what else does this e-mailer have access to, and that raised all kinds of national security alarms. >> there's deep irritation on capitol hill, in the house and senate, respective intelligence committee chairs, for example, that they weren't notified about this, and that irritation seems to be escalating. >> yeah, it is escalating, and one of the reasons is, wolf, that the national security act itself, if you read it, as i have, and others have, and lawyers have, is very ambiguous on this question. it would have been a lot easier if the fbi discovered a national security breach. then the protocol is clear, you take it up the ladder. but if it is just a criminal investigation and it is closing
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and you don't think there's national security implications, there's a great deal of sensitivity for the fbi. they feel no matter what they do, they're going to get blamed. if they don't tell congress, they're going to hear this, that they should have been informed. and if they do tell congress, they risk the story getting out when perhaps it is a closed matter. i think another question a lot of people are raising is whether the fbi should have investigated this matter at all. were these harassing enough e-mails to warrant investigation or did it just happen because jill kelley happens to be friends with an fbi agent who put it in front of someone. >> and all of this is a huge nightmare for the president, at an awful time, has a major transition on national security, losing secretary of state, secretary of defense, the cia director, might lose the attorney general. he has a lot on his mind. last thing he needs to have to deal with two generals being
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investigated. >> the point of this from white house point of view, nobody can blame the president for any of this, and that in fact general petraeus was close to a consensus candidate as you get for a job, and he definitely was. but it does place the president in an odd position because he has all of these moving chess pieces. he has to figure out where they go quickly, he has to do a lot of personal vetting, a lot of political vetting, and i would argue a lot of team building as he gets this foreign policy team together for a second term, not to mention the fact he would rather be focusing now on the fiscal cliff. >> and he is having a news conference tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. eastern from the white house. he is going to be bombarded with questions on this. not exactly the way he wanted to start that news conference, i am sure. thanks very much, gloria. >> sure. she's the florida woman described by one source as bored, a bored, rich socialite. now jill kelley is caught up in this widening scandal.
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taxes and spending decreases kick in. cuts to the pentagon and other domestic program, and as the clock ticks down, there seems to be little common ground between the democrats and republicans. democrats want to raise taxes. republicans want changes to entitlement programs and want to do away with automatic spending cuts. we have seen this movie before. house speaker boehner says 2013 should be the year he says we begin to solve our debt through tax and entitlement reform. don't hold your breath. for starters, there's not that much time left for this lame duck session of congress. after all, they have to get their thanksgiving and christmas vacations in, right? and the democrats might want to wait until january when they have a larger majority in the senate. then there's always the possibility that congress settles on a smaller deal, a temporary one. kick the can down the road again. but if nothing is done, taxes
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will go up for every single american, and we'll be looking square at another recession next year. none of this will be easy on americans' pocketbooks. that's the question. how will the fiscal cliff affect the way you handle your money. post a comment on my blog, or go to my post on "the situation room's" facebook page. >> love that analogy to thelma and louise. and the growing scandal between two top generals and two married women. one powerful lawmaker describes it as something right out of a tabloid. joining us now from capitol hill, senator dianne feinstein of california. she's the chair of the senate intelligence committee. senator, thanks very much for joining us. >> you're welcome, wolf. >> we've spoken on many occasions. i am tempted to throw my hands in the air and simply ask you what is going on now. we're waking up every morning to these new revelations.
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i have been around washington a long time, you have as well. they're pretty shocking. give us your immediate gut. what is going on. >> my immediate gut is like this is the national enquirer. i mean, every day there is something new, and that really does not affect what we're doing, it may add to it somewhat, but what the intelligence committee will begin tomorrow is an inquiry into the benghazi episode. we will have mr. morell, mr. olson of the counter terrorism center as well as the number two of the fbi, sean joyce, and in that way we will be able to cover that. it is also my intention that this has not yet been announced to talk with general petraeus, director petraeus. this ties into his trip that he made just before all of this broke to some middle eastern
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countries, including libya. this afternoon, i will be meeting with the ranking member, our vice chairman, saxby chambliss. we will go over the plan, we will both meet with mr. morell, and we will proceed. >> mike morell is the acting director of the cia now. do you have indications from general petraeus, even though he has resigned, he will come forward and testify about the benghazi affair before your committee? >> well, i believe he will. i think he's a responsible person, and i believe he will come. and so we are going to try to set that up today because his view as someone who was actually there, this is according to mr. woodward who was actually in benghazi, who actually spoke to people who went through the incident, i think that's important for us to hear. >> he was there. so let's talk a little bit about i guess the only way to describe
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these scandals that are going on, there's a scandal involving general petraeus, now general allen, leader of the u.s. military in afghanistan, the nato commander there, he's involved apparently as well. what can you tell us about first of all general allen's role in what's going on right now? >> well, this is all news to me, too. in late spring of this year, the four corners of our two committees, house and senate, the leadership, met with general allen in kabul. we were very impressed with him. he gave a historic narrative of the area which was impressive. he talked about his mission, how it was going, and i think the four of us came away with a sense that he is, in fact, a fine commander. i don't know exactly what the situation is here. we will look at it, we will ask for a report, we will gather the
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materials, we will ask to see classified documents that may have been miss broadwell's computer. i spoke to the attorney general about that last night. he agreed to present this to the intelligence committee, so we will have those, which is important to our mission because our mission is to see was intelligence what it should have been. should we have known this was a terrorist attack, much quicker than ten days after the attack. and my answer is yes, absolutely. so we want to hear testimony on that. if we have had an intelligence deficit, one thing or another, our oversite responsibilities
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have us take actions to see that this area of the world is beefed up intelligence wise. this can't be allowed to happen again. >> have you been briefed on the nature of the relationship between general allen and this woman in tampa, jill kelley? apparently there were thousands of pages of documents that were e-mailed from general allen to this woman that we don't know much about. as chair of the intelligence committee, what have you been told? >> i have not been told very much, that's for sure, and i'll be asking a lot of questions. i know her name has come into question, let me put it that way. i have no factual information whatsoever. people have mentioned that to me in the course of a conversation. that's all. >> do you have any reason to believe classified information was sent from general allen to this woman, jill kelley? >> well, i'll tell you this,
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knowing a little bit about general allen, i would be doubtful it had been, just as i would be doubtful it had been from general petraeus, and essentially i believe it has been confirmed that no classified information was given by director petraeus to paula broadwell. i would expect to find the same thing with respect to general allen. i would be very shocked and surprised if that were the case. >> which raises the question, why did the fbi go back to paula broadwell's home yesterday, last night, spend five hours there, and take out box after box after box of documents, computer equipment, and other material. >> that would indicate to me they're still looking for something. i don't happen to know what that something is. >> do you have any reason to believe she still had security clearances? i know when she was active duty, she says publicly she had what's
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called not only top secret but sci secure come partment clearances. do you have any reason to believe she still had that? >> i do not. >> if she got classified information from general petraeus, that would be violation of the law i presume? >> i'm not going to go there because i don't know that to be the case. look, this is a man of substantial integrity and credibility and i think the last thing he would do would be that. >> why wasn't president obama informed of this sooner. that and more with my interview with dianne feinstein next.
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before last friday, david petraeus was known mainly as an outstanding four star general who led u.s. troops in iraq and afghanistan. now he is a man who resigned after cheating on his wife, joining the ranks of many men that have fallen from grace. lisa sylvester is covering this for us. we have seen this many times. >> that's right. there are certain powerful traits they have, charisma, leadership skills, decisiveness, risk taking. experts say the same elements of their personality may also lead them astray. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> i have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my or any sense of right and wrong.
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>> you didn't send that photo to that woman in washington state? >> i did not send it to that woman. >> they have power, fame and have betrayed their families. men that marred their stellar careers and suffered the consequences. former general petraeus, head of the cia, is the latest to get caught, stepping down after admitting to an affair. but why in the world do men with so much to lose risk it all? helen fisher is author of the book "anatomy of mating. >> the men are high on testosterone, that triggers the sex drive. also away from home a lot, have a lot of opportunities, and a lot of women like a high ranking man. if they aren't looking for anyone, a lot of people are interested in somebody like them. >> in civilian life, an affair can cost your marriage or job. in the military, adulterers can
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be prosecuted. david petraeus insists it started only after he left the military, but his admission has been stunning. >> we have an expression in the military, if it feels good, don't do it. he failed that test in spades. it is a matter of narcissism, huberous, of access. >> military life can be hard on families when you mix in long separations and deployments. jc ekkhardt talks about it. >> if it can happen to this couple who was together for years, their entire adult life, it means that others might be susceptible. >> i don't know of a military couple who did not have the conversation this weekend that was please, please, please don't let this happen to us, promise me this won't happen to us, or this better not ever happen to us. >> petraeus is a lesson even those that climb to the very top
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can fall from grace. and among military families, the sentiment is just sadness that general petraeus built up this incredible reputation only to watch it all collapse in front of him, wolf. >> a tragedy. >> it is really sad. this is the thing many americans are going to remember him for, not for all of his good work that he did before this, wolf. >> very sad indeed. thanks, lisa, for that report. we're also learning new information about the other top general caught up in this petraeus scandal. who he was trading e-mails with, what they were saying. much more coming up at the top of the hour. sn't hurt. and my daughter loves the santa. oh, ah sir. that is a customer. let's not tell mom. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. fedex office.
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here is a look at this
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hour's hot shots. in scotland, soldiers take part in a homecoming parade. in india, they light oil lamps. in somalia, a top official greets officers on a one day trip to the country. in the united states, a man stands in front of a poster for the new james bond movie, "skyfall." good movie. jack is back with the cafferty file. >> are you in that new bond movie? >> i am briefly. i do have a cameo role in a james bond movie, can you believe that? >> that's kind of cool, did you get to run around with any of the bond girls? >> i would like to, i don't think they would run around with me. i would like to. daniel craig, james bond, and wolf blitzer. >> that's not bad. i read where it grossed a bucket of money. apparently it is a hot film. check it out. >> i don't know about the bucket of money. >> having you there will enhance the take at the box office. >> i assume it will.
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>> millions of fans will line up to see you. >> yeah. >> the question this hour, how will the fiscal cliff affect the way you handle your money. bob writes i have been living on the cliff since the bush era in 2000. this step closer to the edge will go almost unnoticed. al writes what money. many americans haven't recovered from 2008, trying to replace lost savings. a more sympathetic question would have been how will the fiscal cliff affect your ability to replace the assets you lost in 2008? kenneth in california, won't affect my handling of my money. i am a working guy, always saved and bought with cash, except for the mortgage on the house. dave in florida writes won't affect me, i have no money left to handle, but i have an absolute faith in congress's ability to kick the can over the cliff, so bring it on. jim in illinois says whatever happens, i'll be sending more to our socialist government so they can redistribute to the slackers. steve says when one knows
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there's a cliff ahead, you begin pumping the brakes will before you near the edge. i started pumping the brakes on personal spendings months ago once i realized congress is more interested in their agenda than in the welfare and financial health of my country. if you want to read more, go to the blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile or through our post on "the situation room" facebook page. >> will do. more information about john allen's relationship with that woman in tampa who sparked the investigation. i'm a conservative investor.
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at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. and you're in "the situation room." happening now, a second distinguished military general now in a growing scandal that reads like a soap opera.
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just ahead, what we just learned about why he might have been involved. stand by. and the woman who may have started it all with a complaint about threatening e-mails. just who is jill kelley? we're live outside her home, digging for more information. and the cia seemingly brought down by an affair between two consenting adults. what prompted the fbi to get involved in the first place? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, the second powerful military force to surface in a scandal that's taken down former cia director david petraeus. general john allen is being
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investigated for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to jill kelley, the woman behind the fbi investigation that uncovered the petraeus affair with his biographer, paula broadwell. cnn's joe johns learned from a source familiar with kelley's version of events there was no sexual relationship with general allen and that their communications were not of a sexual nature. our correspondent nick paton walsh is joining us from beirut. you spent a lot of time in afghanistan, got to know general allen. what have you heard over the past 24 hours let's say about this relationship, if in fact there was a relationship, with this woman, jill kelley in tampa? >> reporter: well, i have spoken to a senior official close to general john allen, and that man is absolutely explicit there was no affair, there was nothing of a sexual nature between them or
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romantic nature. they had never even been alone together. he refers to jill kelley as a bored socialite, who knew many of the commanders because of their role as honorary ambassador, working in programs to look after veterans when they return to the united states. absolutely clear that yes, e-mails were sent by her to both general john allen's business and personal account, but they were almost entirely innocuous nature, not even flirtatious language my source says. at some point, the general may have said thanks, sweetheart, but he is from virginia. that's how they will refer to someone else. she may have said you looked great on television. but it wasn't a flirtatious exchange. absolutely clear there's nothing of a sexual nature here. why are we in this situation, wolf, why are the fbi paying such close attention. this source says general john allen received an e-mail from
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this anonymous account, allegedly run by paula broadwell, warning him about jill kelley. now, he of course knowing jill kelley wrote to her to say look, i received this e-mail talking badly about you, threatening you in some ways, you should know about it. we don't know what happened then. it may be that's when she first contacted an fbi agent. it is not clear. that seems to be the source of the fbi interest in the e-mail exchanges. we talk about 20 to 30,000 documents. my source says that's an exaggeration. he says general john allen replies almost religiously to every e-mail he sent, could be why there's a volume of traffic here. above all, he is clear it is innocuous in content, not flirtatious language. that's giving you a rare glimpse of the other side of the fence. we haven't heard from general john allen, but that's a senior official close to him. >> the news you're reporting is that general allen received an anonymous e-mail, but later
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discovered it to be from paula broadwell, warning him stay away from this other woman, jill kelley. is that what i heard you say? >> reporter: that's correct, that's correct. that's of course when he notified jill kelley, and perhaps where this involvement in the fbi began. i am speculating purely here. that appears to be how the fbi got brought into this and how general john allen got dragged into the situation that led to the resignation of general david petraeus from the cia. >> you know general allen from your coverage of the war in afghanistan. give us a little sense of who this general is. >> reporter: a man greatly respected by many of those who work around him from my dealings with him. it is interesting, the man is supposed to be a salesman, pr master, selling you not just on the war but many fronts, when you talked to him, you were aware he had acute understanding of the problems. he wasn't glossing over the issues. he didn't know what needed to be changed there, but in many ways
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a man facing a difficult task. decisions about troop withdrawal, what to be done on the ground decided for him by washington, and simply trying to draw down a messy, decade long war. he was a man that inspired great loyalty from those around him. one aide i spoke to said he had done many tours in afghanistan, tours in iraq, didn't want to go to afghanistan, but would serve if general john allen asked him to. that call came through. he explained that loyalty came from one anecdote. he and general allen were sat at iraq in a dining facility, a round came near the building, shook it, a young soldier dived under the table for cover. john allen stayed calmly in the seat, stayed down, said son, you're not going to win the war from down there. that's a small taste of what one person explained a reason why they were inspired by him. i am sure why when the news broke this morning, it surprised people with close knowledge of john allen. wolf? >> nick paton walsh, thanks for
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that reporting. appreciate it. joining us to talk more about what's going on, former democratic congresswoman from california, jane harmon. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> let's talk about what's going on, you were a member of the house intelligence committee a long time. i interviewed dianne feinstein, she's not happy she learned about this from news media inquiries. listen to what she told me. >> and it is rather shocking to find out candidly that we weren't briefed and that we find out from the press in the way in which we did, with no heads up, with no opportunity to ask questions or put together any information. >> are you surprised and shocked as i was that the chair of the senate intelligence committee learns that general petraeus is being investigated when reporters start calling up her office?
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>> yes. there's a lot we don't know about the process here. let's start with something you said earlier, wolf, that private consensual sexual affairs should be off limits. i don't see that congress needs to know about those. i don't see that they need to take up this much time on the media frankly when there are important things going on around the world. but nonetheless -- >> he resigned though. >> the process here is confusing. yes, once he resigned, absolutely, the facts need to be known. >> it is not every day a cia director resigns in the midst of a sexual scandal. >> but rolling back the tape here, best as we can tell, this started as an investigation into cyber stalking, alleged cyber stalking by paula broadwell, and through that investigation by the fbi, which i assume was handled according to fbi rules, cyber stalking is a potential crime. the connection to petraeus was discovered. at that point if the fbi is investigating criminal activity, informing other people could
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blow their investigation, so i don't know at that point whether there was any obligation to disclose, and i think their position was there was not obligation to anyone. >> this fbi eight in tampa who alerted this congressman, end of october, who told eric cantor, who went to justice department of the fbi and then this thing exploded. >> again, i don't know exactly what happened, who went, who informed the fbi or asked -- >> you were a long time member of homeland security committee, house intelligence committee. did this fbi agent by blowing the whistle on whatever he did to the republican congressman from washington state, dave reichart do anything wrong? >> that's what we have to find out. dianne feinstein is right to be miffed. i think she and saxby chambliss will have closed door hearings and get all of the facts. that's one part of the fbi story
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we don't understand. why were they briefing jim clapper on election day, may have been coincidence, he is director of national intelligence. again, when did this investigation of potential cyber crime become something else, and if there were no national security implications, what were they doing telling clapper, then clapper volunteered to petraeus he should have stepped aside. >> it is pretty shocking to me, too, she said this, dianne feinstein, that she only learned david petraeus as cia director went to benghazi, and libya, only learned it from bob woodward from "the washington post.." >> that seems strange, i don't know what his obligation is to share travel plans with her unless she was asking for travel plans, she may have been asking and not receiving the information. i don't know that. but they work in separate branches of government. her job as overseer is an important job. i had the -- well, i was ranking member, she's chairman, i was ranking member on the house side a long time, and demanded to be
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briefed by the administration, but a couple of other points, full disclosure. >> you're a member of the external advisory board of the cia and worked closely with general petraeus over the years. >> just going there, yes. i worked closely with him, met him through my professional duties and we have a long, professional, and noi a social relationship. dave and holly petraeus are my friends. >> have you spoken to them since this? >> yes, i have spoken to him. i have very high regard for her. i hope we will all give them some personal space to deal with what is obviously a very difficult moment in their family. i also hope congress will exercise its appropriate responsibilities as the legislative branch, article one of the constitution to get all of the information, but i am guessing when we finally are through this whole thing that there may be less than meets the eye. >> should he have resigned? >> well, that's his call. he was advised to resign. >> is that appropriate for
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general clapper, director of national intelligence, to tell him to resign? >> i think you have to ask clapper that, but i think we need much more full information than at least i have to decide that. i just want to say while we're talking about this, hard working, outstanding people at the cia and at dod, talking about the general allen issue are hard at work for keeping our country safe and the message needs to go out to them that the government stands behind them, that to the extent there are any transitions, they will be orderly. they're solid, serious appropriate successors to david petraeus being considered. >> as soon as he resigned friday your name came up as potentially cia director. never been a woman head of the cia. is that something you would be interested in? >> i have a terrific job. i served in congress 17 years. >> would you be interested in being cia director? >> it is flattering to be considered. my prediction is that one of the inside people, either mike
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morell. >> acting director. >> acting director and is excellent, or john brennan also rumored to be under consideration will probably be asked and either of them would do an excellent, excellent job. there needs to be stability. one final point about david petraeus's performance as cia director. that's something i know about. >> 14 months director as cia. >> director in afghanistan and before that as centcom commander. he brought a different style to the cia than leon panetta. he was hard at work, bringing enormous strategic sense to understanding dangerous parts of the world. the cia is a big, positive contributor to the intelligence community which operates a lot better since we reformed it in 2004 and created a joint command across 16 agencies. the cia is indispensable in the effort to prevent terror attacks on our country. >> you once said, quoting you, i
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live and breathe security 24/7, if they come and ask you to be director of the cia, you will have that opportunity to live and breathe security 24/7. >> i live and breathe at the wilson center, and as the external board if his successor keeps me on. i think it is a critical time for our country. we need to talk about organizing the opposition in syria which if it happens will be a great contribution of secretary of state hillary clinton. >> we will have opportunities to talk about syria and other issues down the road. thanks for coming in. did the fbi end up investigating something that amounted to nothing? up next why some suggest general david petraeus' downfall wasn't deserved. and we look at recent scandals plaguing the u.s. military's highest ranks. [ female announcer ] introducing yoplait greek 100.
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so where do republicans go from here, a week after the party stinging defeat. jack cafferty is following that in the cafferty file. >> wolf, to say the gop needs to do some soul searching in the aftermath of the 2012 election might be putting it mildly. while mitt romney failed to connect with the majority of american voters, the republicans' problem is a whole lot bigger than mitt romney. as one long time republican leader told politico, the gop needs to realize it is too old, too white, too male, maybe even want to add too rich to that. this republican says the party has to figure out how to catch up with demographics of a changing u.s. before it is too late. it is well known romney lost between key voting blocks like latinos, women, in battleground states that decided the election. it might be because as cnn contributor david frum put it, the republican message is no longer relevant to middle class america.
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frum told msnbc it is not just that romney lost, but in the last six presidential elections, the gop lost the popular vote in five of them. frum says over a generation, a once majority party has become a nonmajority party. republican positions on issues like women's rights and immigration are big factors in the decline, and it doesn't help when you have republican congressional candidates like this more on, todd akin, making completely ignorant comments about rape. if republicans want to start winning elections instead of losing them, they're going to have to make some changes so they don't continue to look like they're stuck in the 1950s. here's the question. what does the republican party have to do to become more relevant? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog. or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. time for a gop makeover. >> lot of people saying it, including top republicans. growing questions about whether the downfall of general
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david petraeus was justified as we learn more about the investigation from the fbi that uncovered his affair. let's bring in brian todd working this part of the story. you're getting new information, brian. >> wolf, we are. you look at it overall, the scandal spread from one on one harassment to top levels of government with two prominent officials involved. it is now leading to serious questions about why it was pursued so thoroughly, and whether it should have been. the affair was between two consenting adults, so far no criminal wrongdoing has been found. no breach of national security. paula broadwell's e-mails to jill kelley were angry, jealous in tone, according to sources, but did not threaten violence. now a cia director has been brought down and a top general is being investigated and many of asking did something amounting to maybe nothing spark an fbi investigation? >> a lot of people don't understand and are shocked to believe if they send something on the internet to something they don't like, maybe the
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e-mail is investigated. >> questions are being raised about the motives of the fbi agent involved. the first one approached about e-mails had previously sent shirtless photos to kelley, according to a u.s. official that said that agent was never part of the case. still, "the new york times" says the agent nosed around the case until his superiors told him to stay away. >> obviously the fact he keeps asking about it indicates to other agents he shouldn't be asking this, it is none of his business really to know what another squad is doing. >> how unusual is that behavior inside the bureau? >> it would depend. >> how frowned upon is it? >> normally most agents would understand it is inappropriate. >> cnn contributor tom fuentes says the agent's conduct likely wouldn't have affected the probe. what would have pushed the investigation this far? others say content of e-mails.
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they detail coming and goings of the generals. parts of his schedule were not public. former cyber crime prosecutor says it would raise two questions for the fbi. >> one would be the concern that one has more access to information that person shouldn't see or look at. the second is a security concern. >> that security concern he said would be the possible targeting of petraeus or top generals that could have been mentioned in e-mails from broadwell. if she puts that information about schedules into e-mails to kelley and that gets circulated further, the generals could be at personal risk. willinger says that's enough for the fbi to take it further. the fbi hasn't commented furtherer. an official says it was appropriate to investigate. >> does the fbi routinely investigate these harassing
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e-mails? >> the fbi is devoting more time these days to investigating cyber harassment cases, cyber stalking cases. he says they don't go after one on one cases that are less threatening, mildly threatening, which this appears to be. he says clearly there's something more here. he believes information about comings and goings that paula broadwell sent sparked the investigation and he said there were grounds to do that. >> brian, thanks very much. if a top general has an affair, is it a crime under military law? the answer might be yes. is it time for a refresh you er course from the top down? more in the "the situation room." ♪ [ gordon ] for some this line is a convenience.
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lisa sylvester is monitoring other top stories in "the situation room" now. the governor of alabama making a significant statement as far as health care coverage in his state is concerned. >> that's right, wolf. robert bentley says the state will opt out of the state insurance exchange under the affordable health care act commonly called obama care. the governor says alabama will not expand state medicaid programs because the state can't afford it. states have until this friday to announce if they will participate in an exchange program. and democratic congressman jesse jackson junior is out of mayo clinic where he was treated for bipolar depression, despite embroiled in a house ethics investigation for misuse of campaign funds. he won re-election last week, he has been on leave of absence since june. and john mcafee says he is innocent of murder and is on the run from authorities in central
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america. he is wanted in belize for questioning after his neighbor, a u.s. citizen, was found shot to death last weekend. mcafee left his namesake internet security firm in 1994. and massachusetts police say an er doctor driving drunk and on pills caused this unbelievable crash. it wasn't even 9:00 in the morning when police say the woman behind the wheel hit a delivery truck in a parking lot, ran into a fence twice, sheered a post in two, and then went airborne, crashing into street traffic. one person was transported to the hospital with injuries and the driver was arrested at the scene. police say she failed two sobriety tests, and prosecutors say this doctor is actually prescribing drugs to herself. lucky we didn't have more injuries when you look at the incredible video, wolf. >> 9:00 in the morning. >> wasn't even quite 9:00 in the morning when that happened, wolf. >> thank you. a top u.s. general comes under fire not for an affair,
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the senate intelligence committee just wrapped up closed door meetings on what to do next as far as general petraeus is concerned, what to do next as far as the benghazi investigation is concerned. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash has been speaking with some members and joins us now. what are you learning? >> senator dianne feinstein, chairman of the intelligence committee told you earlier in the show, wolf, she wants former director david petraeus to come and talk to the intelligence committee about what he knows about what happened in benghazi, and there was a meeting just behind me of all the members of the intelligence committee, and feinstein came out and told me that they all did decide that is appropriate, that it is appropriate for petraeus to come and talk to them. we heard from the white house
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earlier today that they believe that what the current or acting director of the cia knows about benghazi is good enough, and that they don't necessarily need to hear from petraeus. clearly on a bipartisan level, the senators here disagree. feinstein told me she believes that there is a big stone left unturned if they don't talk to petraeus. when is that going to happen? earlier today she told me it would happen as early as friday. just now she said they have to wait to talk to him first about when he can come, but they're hoping it will be soon. that is the news here. one other thing that's interesting that there's a lot of anger on capitol hill that members of the intelligence committee at least what they call the big four, chair and ranking members of the house and senate intelligence committee weren't briefed at all about this investigation of david petraeus as it was going on. saxby chambliss, top republican, told ted barrett they are getting a briefing from number two at the fbi about why that didn't happen. we expect something similar on the house side tomorrow.
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>> they take oversite responsibilities seriously. dana, thanks for that. days after general david petraeus stepped down as the cia director, the investigation that uncovered his affair put a cloud over another four star general, john allen. petraeus and allen, two top military men, caught in a drama fresh out of a soap opera. let's go right to the pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence. chris, is this kind of thing an isolated problem, is there a widespread issue growing in the military? what's going on? >> it is a great question, wolf. you don't hire a flag officer to kick down doors and shoot down bad guys. they're given the highest pay and the best perks for their judgment, and for a growing number of them, that judgment has been flawed. they are the elite few, the generals and admirals that rose to the highest ranks of the military. >> i will do my utmost to serve. >> but the shine is off the stars, and it goes beyond
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retired general david petraeus. >> i could think of no better role, no more noble task. >> the defense secretary just demoted four star general kip ward and ordered him to repay over $80,000. investigators found he used his rank to shuttle his wife on shopping sprees, enjoyed a lavish beach front trip, and once accepted a defense contractor's gift of going back stage to meet denzel washington. >> we going to roll it. >> what do you mean? >> got to do something to stop the dive. >> another court-martialed for sodomy. when he was called out for his attitude towards women, he allegedly said i'm a general, i'll do whatever the [bleep] i want. words in rolling stone cost him his job in 2010. >> the problem is that there's a
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cascade of these right now. >> retired general spider mark says as an officer moves through the ranks, there are mechanisms in place that reinforce the military's values, but at the top, a lot of checks and balances have fallen by the wayside, isolating the flag officer. >> it is a thing called hub russ. at some point you think the rules don't apply to you. >> that sense of entitlement sets a dangerous precedent for younger troops. >> if we have a military that doesn't have a firm basis in understanding how important moral, ethical behavior and decision making are to their daily actions and in terms of leadership, then that's -- that kind of puts everything in question. >> these are truly aberrations. >> despite lapses of judgment, he believes military culture is
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still sound. >> look at the hundreds, thousands of senior officers at multiple levels that served with incredible dignity. >> without a doubt, that's true. there are 1.4 million troops, but flag officers? fewer than 950. so generals and admirals make up the tiniest of tiny fraction of the military. when you see five, six, seven showing bad judgment, that's a larger percentage than you might initially think, wolf. >> chris lawrence, thanks very much. let's dig deeper with our national security contributor fran town send, former bush homeland security adviser, and member of the cia external advisory committee. what are these military leaders doing wrong here? what's going on from your vantage point, fran? >> wolf, i think we have to make real distinctions between an officer facing charges of sodomy and whether it is flirtatious
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e-mails or extramarital affairs, i am not excusing that bad behavior, but as you appreciate, there are serious qualitative differences here. i think chris is right to say i think the military needs to do is step back for a moment and look at the kinds of sort of problems in terms of judgment calls that some of these officers have faced, whether it is sexual impropriety or financial impropriety or crimes, that is violations of the code of military justice. and you have to ask yourself, if there's a policy in corporate america that's important, you have to get retrained on it every year. lawyers have to take every two years in new york state, they have to take professional responsibility courses, spend hours being retrained. and frankly, if i was general marty dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs, right now, i am sort of surprised he hasn't stepped out about this. part of that is because these cases, some of these cases are under review right now, but you have to say to yourself we need to then reinforce military
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ethics and our code of conduct if we want it to be taken serious at the highest levels, we need to make sure they're touching that code f conduct and being spoken to about it on a regular, if not annual basis. i suspect you will see the chairman and vice chairman speak to the combatant commanders about it straight down through the ranks. >> the role of commander in chief, the president of the united states should be? >> every year the president has a conference where he pulls together the commanders and senior military leaders and i'm quite sure, wolf, when they sit down, usually there's a dinner, then they spend a half day together at least. i expect on the agenda this year, the president, commander in chief, will be talking about the importance of the military code of conduct and their ethical behavior. >> do you think the worst of this petraeus scandal is now known or is there more still
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coming out? >> you know, wolf, the thing, gosh knows i hope and wish it would be over. i think the piece about the petraeus broadwell affair is done. i think we should wait to make too much out of the john allen, there may be inappropriate or flirtatious e-mails. people again say there was not an affair there, but i think the thing we don't understand, the fact is the fbi has said there's not going to be criminal charges against broadwell or petraeus, except they conducted a six hour search, brought out reams of documents. there's a reason for that, and we don't know what that is. we don't really understand the full import of jill kelley and her many relationships, we have to assume it is not just with david petraeus and john allen, she had access to all sorts of senior military, and i suspect they're looking at whether or not she was just sort of a bored socialite as general allen's
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spokesperson suggested or whether she was being sort of directed by a foreign intelligence service. >> which is a serious allegation obviously. >> absolutely. >> one final question. quickly if you could give me a good answer, this fbi agent that supposedly leaked this to that republican congressman from washington state to congressman dave reichart, did he do anything wrong, violate fbi rules or laws out there? >> wolf, there's a process in the fbi to raise those concerns. we don't know whether or not he did that, but if he failed to raise it internally and simply went directly, he may have violated certainly internal policy of the fbi, and it remains to be seen whether or not there's a legal problem there. >> fran, thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. >> more on this woman, behind the investigation that brought down david petraeus. who exactly is jill kelley. up next, a live report from right outside her home in tampa.
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this is new video we're just getting in of jill kelley leaving her home in tampa. she's the woman whose complaints about threatening e-mails may have brought the wheels of this scandal to light. cnn's ed will he have and dar a is outside her home. ed, what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf, it is a confusing picture at this point. we're doing the best we can to sift through the various pieces we have been able to put together about jill kelley, the woman that's front and center at the scandal surrounding general petraeus, but we do know jill kelley lived here in tampa for awhile. she's married to a prominent
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doctor in the area. as one defense department official described her, in a not so flattering way, described her as a bored rich socialite, but she had become heavily involved here with military causes and hosting events. she also had been volunteering in the last six months we're told with a group called the national council for international visitors. a group that works with the state department. obviously with the dignitaries and high level officials that come through military bases in the tampa area, they had hosted events here at their home that you see behind me. but for her part, jill kelley isn't saying anything at all, simply that her and her husband have been friends with general petraeus the last five years and asking people to respect their privacy at this point. >> there's an interesting nugget here also, ed. it seems like both generals allen and petraeus reached out to help a legal case regarding jill kelley's twin sister, natalie. what do you know about this? >> reporter: this is interesting, i think it points to the types of relationships
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that jill kelley and her husband developed here, not just service relationships but obviously very intimate or close bonds with some of these people, they felt good enough to go to these two generals. it was jill kelley's sister we understand going through a custody battle with her ex-husband and that the two generals wrote letters on jill kelley's sister's behalf, describing her as a wonderful mother and trying to renegotiate or reframe some of the custody issues that were going on in that particular situation. but it is interesting these two generals would essentially go to bat for jill kelley's sister in this custody battle. >> also hearing, ed, from members of jill kelley's family. what's going on here? >> reporter: you know, jill kelley as we mentioned isn't saying anything. she hired a prominent d.c. attorney to help her house as well as a prominent d.c. public relations firm to help her through this. her brother did speak out.
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a lot of things had been said about her the last couple days, unflattering, especially her connections to general john allen, commanding officer in afghanistan as well. but her brother came out and spoke to one of the cnn affiliates in pennsylvania saying anything describing her as anything other than a good mother is simply wrong. >> if you know my sister the way i do, she is number one, a mother. she has three little kids. she is number two, a wife, okay? so after that, everything else is just a side attraction basically, it is peripheral. so she's very dedicated to her husband, to her kids. something like this is really pretty much a fluke, you know. so for anybody to paint her other than that is completely wrong, just completely wrong. >> reporter: wolf, as we mention, we're outside jill kelley's home.
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as amazing as it might seem, she seems to be going on with everything in her life. she showed up with her children and walked inside with all of the cameras looking at her, trying to get some sort of comment from her. wolf? >> interesting stuff. the prominent d.c. attorney representing her, abby lowell? >> reporter: yes. >> well known to represent high profile cases over the years. thank you. the home of the petraeus mistress paula broadwell was searched for hours. just ahead next hour, new information about what fbi agents have found. comes with some risk,elot north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities
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jack's back with the cafferty file.
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jack? >> question this hour, wolf, is what does the republican party have to do to become more relevant? may not be as dire as we make it out to be. mitt romney did get over 50 million votes. still, lee in wyoming writes, "the party of no is too narrow. it will go the way of the dinosaurs if it can't accept change in our very diverse country. the tea party is holding the republican party to hard-headed, no-promise ideas." bob in florida writes, "honestly, jack, i don't think the republicans have to change anything. over the next four years, we'll see obama care fully implemented, gas over 5 bucks a gallon, over $20 trillion in debt, gdp growth under 2%, one out of every four in poverty and still no jobs. republicans will run around with their don't blame me, i voted for romney bumper stickers, saying i told you so. elections really do have consequences." debby writes, "i've been a lifelong republican, but the party left me. they have moved so far to the right, i can't support them. the republican party is only
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concerned with the 1% and they're upset that all the big moneybags couldn't buy this election. the republican party failed its people and they wonder why the people won't support them." paul writes, "the last 60 years, there's been enormous change in the united states, in culture, race, and gender relationships. if the republicans want to become a more relevant elephant, they'll have to wake up to the fact that it's not 1952 anymore." jerry on facebook wrote this, "do what the democrats did after the disastrous 1980s, have a more moderate party platform. the republican platform is frightening." frank in los angeles writes, "the problem with the republican party is that they can't purchase relevance off the shelf or at high-end stores. thus, they're reaching tout to women and minorities as just plane tokenism. it's going to take years to wash away the bad taste left in the nation's mouth by republicans like alan west, todd akin, richard mourdock, and dick cheney." to read more about this, go to the blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile or through our post on "the
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situation room's" facebook page. wolf? >> jack, thank you. he died back in 2004, but questions still linger over what exactly happened to yasser arafat. details on what investigators are doing right now to answer that question. was he poisoned? ♪ ♪
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call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? delicate work is now underway in the west bank to review the body of yasser arafat. french authorities have launched a murder investigation into his death after finding a radio active substance on some of his personal things. cnn's senior international correspondent sara sidner is in ramallah. >> reporter: security forces are keeping us as far away as possible from the palestinian
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presidential compound, where the body of deceased peo leader yasser arafat has been laid to rest. now, you can see below and behind me, a huge blue tarpaulin that is surrounding his mausoleum. what we're hearing from a source is the glass that usually surrounds that mausoleum has now been taken down and workers are working on removing the marble tombstone. this is all happening because the family of yasser arafat believes he was murdered after plunium 210 was found on his body, according to a swiss lab. his body is supposed to be exhumed this month and there is a lot of work to be done. a source says the exhumation could take at least two weeks and maybe more because some of the work will be done by hand. when the work of removing the dirt in his grave is done, we're expecting to see scientists from france, switzerland, and russia here to watch that process and to take tests. this is all happening just as everyone commemorates the
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advisory, the eight-year anniversary of arafat's death. his family very upset and there has always been suspicion that arafat was murdered when he died in a french hospital in 2004. sara sidner, cnn, ramallah. happening now. spreading scandal. new claims about general john allen's contacts with the woman who helped trigger the david petraeus investigation. also, another surprising new twist leads back to petraeus' former lover, paula broadwell and her e-mail trail. and the president's staffing up for his second term. he appears blindsided by this sensational mess. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the top u.s. military commander in afghanistan appears
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to be fighting back, trying not to be brought down by scandal, as general david petraeus was. general john allen is under investigation by the defense department, and his nomination to be the military head of nato is now on hold. at issue, allen's contacts with jill kelly, who played a role in exposing the affair that cost petraeus his job as the cia director. let's go to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. she's working the story for us. we're hearing general allen's side of the story right now, aren't we, barbara? >> we are, indeed, wolf. general allen, joe kelly all now saying what did not happen, but the question remains, why is there a pentagon investigation? marine corps general john allen denies an extramarital affair with jill kelly, the florida socialite whose concern over threatening e-mails led to an investigation that revealed an affair between cia director david petraeus and his biographer, paula broadwell.
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a pentagon official told reporters allen, who commands the war in afghanistan, is adamant he did nothing wrong. a senior official close to allen tells cnn of kelly, "there is no affair. she's a bored, rich socialite." a u.s. official says there appears to be nothing criminal, but allen is now under investigation for what is being called inappropriately flirtatious e-mails to kelly. >> directed that the matter be referred to the inspector general of the department of defense. >> reporter: the fbi found up to 30,000 pages of documents, some of them e-mails between allen and kelly, some dating back two years, during their investigation. according to a senior official close to allen, one message the afghan commander sent warned kelly she'd been threatened. the official says allen had received an anonymous message, now believed to be from broadwell. the pentagon was called in because allen is subject to military law, but why did this
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only come out now in public view? >> we have a large amount of alleged material that went between these individuals, as much as 30,000 pages. it's not clear whether this was viewed as a relatively minor question or whether it was not apparent, until the very end, that the general was involved. >> reporter: allen was to appear thursday for a senate hearing, to become the military head of nato. now, that is on hold. >> we need to be careful not to have this cloud of scandal start to color the image of general allen, because the minute that happens, it may be almost too late to sustain his leadership. >> reporter: the general is highly respected inside the ranks and is known to be all business. >> the president was very clear at west point. >> reporter: former marine, john eliot, has worked for allen. >> from early on in his career, all the way up to four stars and commanding afghanistan, he is somebody who has never made a
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wrong step. >> reporter: the president for now is keeping allen in command. >> he has faith in general allen, believes he's doing and has done an excellent job. >> look, wolf. a source familiar with jill kelly's version of events says there was no sexual relationship, there was no affair with general allen. but on the other side of this, there is an investigation here at the pentagon, and we have talked to senior officials who say leon panetta, the secretary of defense, would not have ordered that investigation if there wasn't something that needed to be looked at. wolf? >> so his nomination to be the nato supreme ally commander, following his tour of duty in afghanistan, all of that is on hold for now? >> reporter: it is on hold for now. there will be a confirmation hearing shortly for the man who is going to secede him to command the war in afghanistan. but right now, no clear way ahead for a new military chief of nato, the united states' most important security alliance, wolf. >> certainly is.
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barbara, thank you. let's get some more now on jill kelly and her connection to general allen and to the petraeus investigation. kate balduan is here picking up this part of the story. >> and as you know, our whole team, all of our correspondents are digging on this story for every bit of information as it's coming out, it seems in drips and drabs. our chief political analyst, gloria borger, is here with more on that. gloria, you're learning some new information this morning. what do you have? >> to follow up on what barbara starr is saying, my colleague, joe johns and i have been told that jill kelly and general allen had no sexual relationship. this is from a source familiar with jill kelly's version of events. but again, no sexual relationship. i don't think we know the exact nature of their friendship, but this is what we were told. i've also been told by a source familiar with jill kelly's version of events that she first mentioned this sort of e-mail harassment kind of casually to this fbi agent and said, i was told, you know, by the way, i'm
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getting these kinds of threatening e-mails and this agent then said, okay, let me check it out. and i'm told she was sort of happy for that. you know, okay, because this is kind of bothering me. i was also told from this same source, then, as we now know, the fbi agent went and proceeded. and that kelly did not know at first, or have any idea, that these -- that the e-mail investigation would eventually lead to the revelation of a relationship between petraeus and paula broadwell. so, again, when you look at how this kind of, this spool of yarn sort of unraveled, it's clear that jill kelly, at the outset, had no idea that this would damage her friend, david petraeus. >> because it came from an anonymous e-mail address. so she didn't even know where these threats were coming from. >> but the whole fbi investigation now has become so controversial. >> it's controversial at every level. and dana bash is going to talk
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about how it's controversial at the congressional level, because they wanted to be informed. but also, when you look at, again, how this story has snowballed, you start out with one woman e-mailing another woman. maybe she's jealous, whatever. and suddenly it involves the director of the cia, personal e-mails back and forth on g-mail accounts. and so you have civil libertarians now raising the question, wait a minute, what's appropriate to look into and what's inappropriate to look into? once you've discovered that there is no national security issue here, why are we looking into the personal e-mails between individuals when it has nothing to do with their, you know, with their professional jobs or, and that's an issue, in particular, if it involves general allen, for example, and jill kelley, who had no sexual relationship, as we've been told. so it's going to be a question
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that civil libertarians are going to be looking into, because in the age in which we live, this cyber age in which we live, this is kind of their worst nightmare. >> once you type it, even if you don't hit send, if you keep it in a draft file, it is there forever. >> there forever. gloria, thanks very much. first, this scandal is obviously a big deal for a lot of reasons. it's certainly a huge deal for the obama administration. we have new details about when and how the president was told about the allen bombshell. and the latest development, our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is joining us now. jessica, first of all, what are you learning? >> hi, wolf. we understand that the president was first told there might be trouble with general allen and this investigation on friday, when the white house's counsel office was notified that there could be trouble with his nomination to become nato supreme allied commander. then on monday evening, the president was notified that secretary of defense leon panetta has referred to matter to the defense department's inspector general.
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keep in mind, now, according to the timetable, the president had also just been told on thursday about general petraeus' indiscretions, so it must have been an awful lot to take in all in one week, right after the election. secretary -- press secretary jay carney says, though, it was out of the white house's hands, this time frame, for their notification. listen to this. >> they have, as i understand it, protocols in place for when they notify the legislative and executive branches of investigations. and it is simply a fact that the white house was not aware of the situation regarding general petraeus until wednesday, and the situation regarding general allen until friday. >> reporter: so as you consider the coincidence that the president was told about this just days after the election, keep this in mind. cnn has been told by senior u.s.
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officials that paula broadwell's last interview with the fbi was on november 2nd. so it would seem the fbi investigation was still ongoing just days before the election, wolf. >> the election was november 6th. this obviously leaves some huge holes in the president's national security team. what do we know about this cabinet shuffle that's about to begin? >> reporter: well, as we talk about personnel matters, let me say, the saying inside the obama administration is, "those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." so, keeping that in mind, those who talk to me say the following. that u.s. ambassador susan rice has supporters inside the white house to become secretary of state. if she were to go for that job, if she were to be nominated, obviously, she would have a bruising confirmation battle, but people believe she would ultimately get confirmed. do they want that fight is a question and how would that affect the rest of the chess pieces?
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senator john kerry, who chairs the senate foreign relations committee, has, it's been widely known, long wanted to be secretary of state. if susan rice gets the state nomination, he could be put up for secretary of defense. or not. he says he's right now focused on his job in the senate. another possibility is the president has said he would lake to have a bipartisan cabinet. defense is a good place to put a republican, a republican such as former senator chuck hagel, for example. that's just one name i've heard bandied about. or you could put that person at cia. although the talk is that john brennan, the current homeland security adviser, is the man who could get cia if he wants it. but there's no knowledge about whether or not he wants it. and if he doesn't take it, mike morrell, the current acting director is considered the shoo-in for that job, wolf. >> he's got a full treasury
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secretary as well. there's speculation that jack lew could get that position. jessica, there'll be a lot of shuffling going on over at the white house. thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. the david petraeus scandal is complicating attempts by congress to investigate the attack on the u.s. consulate in bengha benghazi, libya. we'll tell you what's going on in a closed-door meeting on capitol hill, next. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade.
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members of congress are launching investigations into the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the senate intelligence committee chair diane finestein says she hopes that petraeus will appear before her committee. stand by for some of that interview. that's coming up this hour. right now, i want to go to our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash. senator feinstein was in closed-door meetings this afternoon up on capitol hill. first of all, what are you hearing? what happened?
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>> reporter: she came out of those meetings saying she's not the only one who really believes it is still essential for now the former director of the cia, david petraeus, to come and talk to the senate intelligence committee about what he knows, about what went on in benghazi. she said that it was -- the committee was in full agreement. democrats and republicans, that they really want to hear from them. now, earlier in the day, she had said that she hopes that that would happen on friday. that he would come and talk to people in closed session this week, the end of the week, but after the meeting, she said that she's just not sure, because they actually have to get to david petraeus to see what would work with his schedule. the only other interesting thing about this meeting is that the republican who is the head of the intelligence committee, saxby chambliss, told our ted barrett that it's really important to emphasize what they want to talk to him about is the substance of benghazi. that he was there pretty recently. that he is an important player in terms of knowing what went on, and that that is the substance and the subject they
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want to talk to him about, reading between the lines, that they don't necessarily want to ask him about those e-mails. >> and senator john mccain was at that meeting as well. he's the ranking member of the armed service committee. what did they have to say? >> reporter: very interesting. until last night, the folks up here were thinking they had to focus on one scandal, and now it's of course two, with very big players. and the other has to do with the pentagon. and john mccain is the ranking republican on the armed services committee. i asked about how they're going to go forward with their investigation of general allen's alleged flirtatious e-mails with a woman. watch this. >> and i just was very surprised and the secretary of defense called me up and said that they were going to have a full investigation, that general allen denies any impropriety, so i think it's appropriate to have the investigation go forward and the senate armed forces committee look at it as well. >> are you comfortable with him serving in his current capacity?
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>> yes. i am -- i am comfortable with that. we need someone in charge. no one has ever argued that his performance of duty is not been excellent. but we are going forward with the hearing for his replacement, as you know. and that hearing, i'm sure will be resolved, this issue of succession. >> and again, that was senator mccain talking about the, now the scandal they're dealing with senator allen. making clear that although he believes his nomination for effectively a promotion is on hold, but that he's comfortable with him serving currently as the head of international forces in afghanistan. one last thing. senator mccain simply will not let up on this idea that the white house completely botched, in his words, the whole benghazi affair. but also -- twice used the terms "cover-up," that perhaps they're actually covering up some problems. he said it's either incompetence or cover-up. he says there's got to be a
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select committee on that. and although scandal has certainly taken over capitol hill in washington, he says that's the most important thing that congress should focus on. >> scandal, cover-up, botched, incompetence, whatever you want to call it, it's a bad situation, all-around. dana, thanks very much. and you can really feel dianne feinstein's frustration when she talks about the david petraeus sex scandal and the new link to general john allen. stand by to hear the senate intelligence committee chair tell us the part she finds most shocking. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.
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syria's government is scoffing at the new opposition alliance. kate's here with more on the day's top stories. >> a big story that we also
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continue to follow. also, the rebel alans says the only option for syria is a new government without president baa shir al assad. but they're saying no power in this entire world can defeat the regime. well, the u.s. and arab nations say the alliance needs to get on the same page with a plan to oust assad. the civil war rages on with at least 48 people killed in the violence today, day after day. also, despite a botched launch this year, north korea has carried out two rocket engine tests since april. that's according to images from a commercial satellite that were analyzed by a u.s. academic website. the site, called 38 north, says after presidential elections in both the u.s. and south korea, the north may test its long-range missile and nuclear capabilities early next year. and back in the u.s., two weeks after superstorm sandy harmed the northeast, new york city took another step toward normalcy. governor andrew cuomo announced the reopening of a key rush hour tunnel between brooklyn and
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lower manhattan, and he vows that's just for starters. >> and this is not just going to be about building back what was. this is not going to be just about restoring what was. this is going to be building back a new york that has never been before. and we're going to build back better than was before. >> the tunnel, formerly the brooklyn battery tunnel, was flooded with an estimated 43 million gallons of corrosive seawater in each of its two tubes. and more travelers, but fewer fliers. that's the aaa thanksgiving forecast. says 43.6 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home, over the holiday, up a few thousand from last year, and the forecast says 90% of them will travel by car. the number of people flying is expected to drop slightly, although it will still top 3 million. possibly because of ticket prices. i booked a flight, whoo, that was painful. >> yeah. >> get used to it. >> yeah, no kidding. >> our correspondents are
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digging and digging and they're trying to find out what fbi agents may have discovered inside the home of david petraeus' lover. they're getting new information. here's another question we're asking. were any classified documents found? we're going to have the latest. consider the silverado 1500 -- still the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. and now we've also been recognized for lowest total cost of ownership -- based on important things, like depreciation, fuel, and maintenance costs. silverado -- recognized for lowest total cost of ownership of any full-size pickup. from outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep.
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right now you may need a scorecard to keep track of the scandal that's hanging over the u.s. intelligence community, the u.s. military, and the obama administration. >> it all unraveled when david petraeus resigned as cia director last week, admitting he had an extramarital affair. the woman was later identified as his biographer, paula broadwell. the fbi investigated the affair after broadwell reportedly sent harassing e-mails to a tampa socialite, jill kelly. now, general allen is under investigation for his contacts with kelly. both he and kelly deny they ever had an affair. for more on all of this, that's really a hard web to even follow, let's bring in our intelligence correspondent,
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suzanne kelly. suzanne, the fbi searched paula broad broadwell's home. what do you know about that? >> agents spent about five hours conducting a search and took documents and computers from her house. now, we're told by a u.s. official that agents are looking further into what classified materials she has, but the official described this search as sort of tying up loose ends. an earlier search of broadwell's computer did turn up classified material. and according to that same official, broadwell and petraeus both told investigators that the material did not come from him. but you can bet that those agents are now trying to track down the source of that classified information. there's still no word on whether there could be any charges brought against her, but we're told that she's hired an attorney here in washington and i've reached out several times today and still haven't heard back. >> suzanne, what else are you hearing about the fbi agent who sent kelley those shirtless pictures of himself and apparently was involved in
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triggering this entire investigation. >> sounds like a soap opera. but a u.s. official confirms that the agent in question, wolf, did sendk kelley, but sai that occurred before this case investigation. the official we spoke with said this agent never worked the case. but instead that he passed that information that kelley gave him on to special agents in another department, the cyberunit, and that it was that department that took up the investigation that eventually led to the affair between broadwell and general petraeus. wolf and kate? >> suzanne, thanks very much. this scandal is certainly raising lots of questions about attitudes within the spy community and within the u.s. military. >> but top government officials suggest this isn't a commentary on the culture of those institutions. listen here. >> when you're director of the cia, with all the challenges
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that you can position, you know, that personal integrity comes first and foremost. >> i think that it's really important to know that this was a personal indiscretion, as far as we know. why somebody would be personally indiscreet is their own problem. >> i really would ask you to not extrapolate broadly. the president has great confidence in the military, great confidence in his commanders, and will continue to have that confidence. >> let's bring in david ignatius. the columnist for "the washington post." he's joining us from "the washington post" and the u.s. army general, mark kimmitt, retired, who's worked at the state department as well as the military. general kimmitt, a lot of people are asking, these indiscretions now from the highest levels, these totally respected generals. it may be part of a bigger, systemic problem within the military. do you believe that? >> well, i really don't. i mean, what makes these unique is sort of the level that these are happening. the fact remains, at any period of time, a certain number of
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generals are being investigated for indiscretions. in this case, two four stars, three in you include general ward. but the military needs to take an internal look, really evaluate to see if this is, in fact, something institutional or if this is just episodic. >> look at these poll numbers, david. we asked -- not we, but nbc and "the wall street journal" in a recent poll, do you have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence in the u.s. military? 76% said they do. the presidency, 42%. the supreme court, 33%. will these events, though, over the past few days, change that confidence in the military? >> well, it's just too early to be sure. we don't have the facts on general allen. it's simply an investigation. i do think that the public's confidence in the military is tied up with public administratiadmiration for the job that the military has done and these ten long years of war, in very difficult battlefields in iraq and afghanistan, as general kimmitt knows, as well as anyone.
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and one obviously takeaway for me, as i read these really quite sad personal stories of general petraeus and now the investigation of general allen, is, these commanders and all of the officers and soldiers serving under them had been away from home for so long, on repeated, prolonged deployments. general petraeus spent most of the last ten years apart from his wife, holly. i can't say about general allen, but that's just a tremendous burden for people to bear, personally. it's easy to forget about it and kind of chase after the details of the scandal, but it's the thing i'm thinking about when you ask that question, wolf, about confidence in the military, that these people have performed well, but under such difficult circumstances. >> and general, these are two, as we all well know now, two very decorated military men. and when you look at these allegations and the stories that we're starting to learn more and more about, a big question we're hearing from lawmakers on capitol hill is the national
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security question. how concerned are you about the question of national security, especially when you look at this relationship between david petraeus and paula broadwell? >> i think that's got to be investigated, but i don't think we should be so quick to jump to conclusions. it's clear the fbi is taking a look. if there is, in fact, a national security concern, they'll find it. on the other hand, in the case of general allen, where nothing has been proven at this point other than the exchange of e-mails, we ought to take a deep breath and wait for that investigation to bear itself out, before we draw any conclusions. >> and david, this story is clearly grabbing headlines. really, no surprise. but when you look at what's going on. we now have our cia director that's resigned, we have a holdup in the nomination process of general allen. do you think this hurts our reputation abroad? because we know people are watching it. >> yes, there's no question about it. if you try to imagine for a moment, cia officers around the world, who are making clandestine contacts with people, who they want to get to
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help out the united states by providing information, and with these stories rocketing around the world, i'm sure that people we're trying to recruit are scratching their heads, wondering what goes on here. so, undoubtedly, it makes life more difficult for a secret intelligence agency, to have its former director the subject of this sensational worldwide scandal. that's why cia directors should be careful. that's why general petraeus did something that, as he said himself, was inappropriate, not what he should do as cia director, and it does have an effect. sure it does. >> certainly does. david, stand by. general kimmitt, stand by, as well. we have more to discuss, including this. will another shoe drop in the unfolding petraeus scandal? we'll talk about that and more when we come back. questions?
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general kimmitt and david ignatius. general kimmitt, was it appropriate for general clapper, the head of the director of national intelligence, to advise general petraeus, based on what he knew then, to resign? >> oh, i think so. he not only is his boss, but he's also his mentor as well. general clapper, much more experienced officer in the military, probably ten years his senior. and it probably is best that he heard it from somebody such as general clapper. >> so you think general petraeus did the right thing by resigning? >> absolutely. >> and david, i want to read to you and read to our viewers, part of a column that you wrote today, that we really found quite fascinating. kind of looking past the petraeus angle. you wrote in part, the petraeus era cia had a hidden defect, quite apart from any errant e-mails, which was that the
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paramilitary covert-action function was swallowing alive the old-fashioned intelligence-gathering side of the house. this actually seems to me to be the central lesson of the disaster in benghazi, libya." explain a little bit more what you mean here. >> the traditional core mission of the cia is to collect intelligence, to steal secrets, to find out the things that are going to keep americans safe. there's another function, which historically is set uneasley with that collection function, which we call covert action. and in its most extreme form is covert military action. covert military officers on the ground, drone attacks, those are all examples of, in effect, military action that's done denial lablly with the cia. and that part of the agency's act activities has gotten
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bigger. and i worry as someone who's covered the cia for, gosh, 30 years, that it's begun to shift the balance in a way that the cia should try to correct. you know, the post-petraeus era might be one in which you begin to shift more toward the traditional mission of foreign intelligence collection. if you look at benghazi, it was full of paramilitary officers who were there to protect the case officers and ended up having to come rescue the diplomats, which isn't their job. that's not what they're there to do. >> i was speaking, general kimmitt, earlier, yesterday and today, with people who were supposedly know what's going on. they say, you know what, we only know a little bit. so far, there's more that's going to unfold. do you expect more, another shoe to drop, if you will? because when i woke up this morning and heard about general allen, i said, whoa! >> frankly, we're running out of shoes and we can only hope at this point that this is the last shoe to drop. and i hope that the military can get back to the fundamental business of national security and not worrying about the next scandal. >> because we don't want the
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military to lose the image it had, has built up over these years. you and i remember, after vietnam, what was going on. >> absolutely. and even more important, we don't want these young soldiers worrying about who's in charge of them. if they're going to go into battle, if they're going to protect this country, they have to have trust and confidence in their leaders. >> and david, in the intelligence community, as well, as you say, the morale factor must be pretty bad right now. >> it's a tough people for people at the cia. they're used to being a political football. so, unfortunately, this happens to the cia often. but i'm sure they want to get back to work. david, thanks very much. david ignatius from "the washington post." general kimmitt, thanks to you, as well. kate, i'm heading over to emcee an event honoring international journalists here in washington at the ronald reagan building. so i'm leaving. you'll wrap things up for us. >> i'll hold down the fort, but only while you're gone. >> you'll do an excellent job. we'll have much more of what's going on, including my interview with senator dianne feinstein. she's got a lot to say on this
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the affair that brought down cia director david petraeus caught most officials in the nation's capital by surprise. and many of us by surprise. and they're finding general john allen's connection to the scandal just as shocking. wolf, earlier, asked senate intelligence committee chair dianne feinstein what she's been told. listen here. >> well, this is all news to me, too. in the very late spring of this year, the four corners of our two committees, house and senate, the leader, met with
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general allen, in kabul. and we were very impressed with him. he gave an historic narrative of the area, which was impressive. he talked about his mission, how it was going, and i think the four of us came away with a sense that he is, in fact, a fine commander. i don't know exactly what the situation is here. we will look at it. we will ask for a report. we will gather the materials. we will ask to see classified documents that may have been on miss broadwell's -- that's another -- miss broadwell's computer. i spoke to the attorney general about that last night and he agreed to present this to the intelligence committee, so we will have those, which is important to our mission. because our mission is to see,
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as intelligence, what it should have been. should we have known that this was a terrorist attack? much quicker than ten days after the attack? and my answer to that, just on my review of facts is, yes, absolutely. so we want to hear testimony on that. if we have had an intelligence deficit, of one thing or another, our oversight responsibilities call us to take those actions in intelligence authorization bills or elsewhere, to see that this area of the world is beefed up intelligence wise. this can't be allowed to happen again. >> have you been briefed on the nature of the relationship between general allen and this woman in tampa, jill kelley? apparently there were thousands of pages of documents that were e-mailed from general allen to this woman that we don't know much about. as chair of the intelligence committee, what have you been told? >> i have not been told very
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much, that's for sure. and i'll be asking a lot of questions. i know that her name has come into question. let me put it that way. i have no factual information, whatsoever. people have mentioned that to me in the course of a conversation, that's all. >> do you have any reason to believe classified information was sent from general allen to this woman, jill kelly? >> well, i'll tell you this, knowing a little bit about general allen, i would be very doubtful that it had been, just as i would be doubtful that it had been from general petraeus. and essentially, i believe it's been confirmed that no classified information was given by director petraeus to paula broadwell. i would expect to find the same thing with respect to general allen. i would be very shocked and surprised if that was not the raes this question,
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senator. why did the fbi go back to paula broadwell's home yesterday, last night, spent five hours there, and take out box after box after box of documents, computer equipment, and other material? >> well, that would indicate to me that for something. i don't happen to know what that something is. >> you know what is shocking to me, you and mike rogers, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, that both of you and your staffs learned about all of this when you got inquiries from the news media. and i say to myself, what is going on here, senator? i've -- and i'm pretty surprised by that as well. i assume you're shocked by that. >> well, i'm shocked by it. because the process and the procedure has been to brief the four corners of the committee, both house and senate, with respect to covert operations taking place.
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they don't share it with the whole committee, but they do share that data with the four of us. and that has never been violated. so there's no reason not to have trust here. and it's rather shocking to find out, candidly, that we weren't briefed, and that we find out from the press in the way in which we did. with no heads up, no opportunity to ask questions or put together any information. so we have been coming from behind on this. that's true for the house committee, it's true for our committee. >> i don't know what's more shocking, that you weren't briefed, that representative rogers wasn't briefed or the president of the united states wasn't even told about what's going on, apparently, until the very end. why would they keep him in the dark? >> well, i don't know. i have many questions about the nature of the fbi investigation. how it was instituted. and we'll be asking those questions.
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>> we have much more on this story coming up at the top of the hour. cnn's erin burnett is going "outfront" on the scandal. erin, what more are you looking into? >> we're looking into really who knew what when. especially now that there is another four-star general involved. one of only four four-star generals in the u.s. marines, general allen. we'll get the latest on that situation. why the president decided to put it on hold. we'll be joined by bob casey on the foreign relations committee to find out what he knows. he was also, by the way, briefed on the related story of what happened in benghazi to the. we're also joined by former assistant director of the fbi to get answers on why it was six months from when the fbi started its investigation into these e-mails until when people like dianne feinstein actually find out about it. people including the president of the united states. and last but not least, wolf and kate will be joined by colonel pet peter monsor, a close friend,
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he'll be our guest tonight, as well. all that at the top of the hour. one more thing. a special report into the culture of the military and why so many of these things seem to be happening now. >> that definitely seems to be kind of the next question. not only when we've been watching these headlines and this developing story, erin, but also -- is there another shoe to drop? i mean, we wouldn't even have imagined at the beginning of the week this would have been unfolding as it is, but i think the question of is this a systemic issue, culture problem within the military that a lot of people seem to be wondering, right? >> that's right. we're looking into that. and as you said, kate, truly bizarre is the only word that comes to mind as this spreads out. whether general allen was doing anything wrong or not doing anything wrong, at the very least, this is bizarre and some real questions are still out there as to why we're finding out now, and whether we should have known before. >> yeah. lots of time line questions, especially. erin burnett, "outfront," at the top of the hour we'll be there. thanks so much, erin. still ahead, he found his twin hanging in a museum.
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want to know more? cnn's jeanne moos has the story.
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it seems to happen to everyone. somebody says you look exactly like an actor or a celebrity or someone you know or cnn news anchor/james bond movie star. okay, maybe not that last one. but one man recently came across his look-alike on the wall of a major art museum. here's cnn's jeanne moos. >> reporter: a college student and his girlfriend were strolg around the university of philadelphia museum of art's armor department when she spotted him hanging there.
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>> i'm giggling like crazy and it's dead-silent in this museum. >> reporter: how do you stop giggling when you see this. i go, do you see this guy? >> i'll be honest. at first i didn't think it looked like me. >> reporter: not until max got a look at the photo nikki curtis took. >> in which case, there is no denying the resemblance there. >> reporter: imagine finding your twin in a twin in a portrait of a nobodielman painted by an en known artist in 1862. >> i feel good, i've got to admit. >> reporter: cue the time travel and reincarnation jokes. but it's believed the painted originated not far from florence, italy where max's grandfather's family is from. >> we're thinking it might not be totally far-fetched for that to be an ancestor of my family's. >> but less face it, the whole time travel thing is fun. >> reporter: fun comparing keanu reeves to the portrait of a french actor from the 1800s and nicolas cage to a civil war era
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photograph on letterman. and then there was the time a group called improv everywhere brought a look along from king phillip iv of spain from the new york metropolitan museum and placed in front of the king from 1624. >> we're having an autograph signing with king phillip iv of spain. >> is he really a king? >> yeah. >> really? >> he's too young -- >> he's 400 years old. >> he doesn't look -- >> security asked them to leave. max would like to come back to the philadelphia museum of art in costume for a photo op. there is some sort of weird symmetry between those red tights and that purple tie dyed t-shirt. >> they would be great together. >> actually, some jokers already photo shopped them together. pink floyd t-shirt and tights. being venus might be safer. at least if your art twin is